1 state’s stunning rise has shaken up our Prime 100 Programs rating

Hop into that point machine, people. We’re going again 25 years, to 1999. 

That Tiger Woods child positive can play. Hopefully Y2K doesn’t screw up the tee time system. Did you see the most recent rating from GOLF Journal?

The impetus for our time journey is the newest rating of Prime 100 Programs You Can Play from GOLF Magazine. As a result of that very same checklist 25 years in the past, earlier than this very web site even existed, was a sight to behold. Pebble Seaside was No. 1, and nonetheless is! Pinehurst No. 2 was … no. 2. It nonetheless is! However the weirdness of time journey exhibits itself at no. 3: Blackwolf Run’s River Course, in Sheboygan, Wisc., created in 1988.

Blackwolf Run is a beautiful, demanding course and completely deserving of reward. However it was the third-best public course in America 25 years in the past and it’s barely the third-best course in its personal county today. That’s not meant as disparagement to Blackwolf, both. It’s a nod to the truth that in 25 years, there’s been an epic motion of golf in Wisconsin. And never simply golf, however public golf. 

No state has seen a larger rise in its public golf choices than Wisconsin has over the past three many years. Granted, nice golf’s arrival in western Oregon is spectacular — Bandon’s 5 programs all rank within the high 30. However Wisconsin now has eight within the high third of the rating. 

Importantly, and even improbably, they’re not owned by the identical firm, driving real competitors (and even cooperation) among the many group of elite programs. Whistling Straits completely understands your golf journey may begin at Erin Hills and is sure to go to Sand Valley, Lawsonia and possibly even as much as SentryWorld. They only wish to be included on the itinerary, too.

In whole, Wisconsin has 9 programs on this latest Prime 100 Programs You Can Play checklist, rating it in a tie for second-most with Florida and North Carolina. Certain, California has 11 programs on the checklist, however solely one of these was constructed within the twenty first century. North Carolina has 9 on the checklist, however solely two of these programs are current builds. Wisconsin has rightly earned the label of most underrated golf state over time as a result of, except you’re blessed with a big-money endowment for annual golf journey, you possible nonetheless want to play quite a lot of them. Each few years a brand new one is added to the checklist. 

The Lido up at Sand Valley arrived on this 12 months’s checklist with a ton of fanfare, nevertheless it’s not even the latest Wisconsin must-play. That’s Sedge Valley, simply down the road, which opened in 2024. (The empire being constructed at Sand Valley isn’t precisely carried out rising, both. The wind up there appears to go on eternally.) 

The proliferation of latest programs within the Badger State has been such a gentle stream that it’s even change into cliché to recommend it as your subsequent golf journey vacation spot. On this case, we’ll enable for clichés. As a result of don’t neglect that point machine train up high. That checklist from 1999 had simply three Wisconsin programs on it. It now has 9. And people three from 25 years in the past deserved to be there, and haven’t gone away. Blackwolf Run is down at No. 29, due to 17 programs which have arrived since. Its sister course, the Meadows, makes your journey to Blackwolf a bit juicier. 

Then there’s College Ridge, which was 97th again in 1999. U-Ridge has by no means been higher; it yearly hosts the Champions Tour and was on our debut checklist of Finest Worth programs again in 2021. When that checklist was up to date in September, it got here with a shoutout for an unheralded muni referred to as Washington County. That sits up the highway from Erin Hills, prices simply $65, and is an ideal appetizer for the massive resort course close by. Did it exist 25 years in the past? It was only a toddler then, like quite a lot of the concepts for the programs that may observe it. 

We may go on and on, however the backside line must be clear. If there’s a listing to be product of programs you’ll be able to really get on, Wisconsin is throughout it.